SBU comments on Slidstvo.Info pressure

The Security Service of Ukraine is looking into the report by the Slidstvo.Info team about the the SBU allegedly using TSC officers to put pressure on journalist Yevheniy Shulhat following his investigation into the SBU's head of cyber security, Illya Vitiuk.

The SBU press office reported this to Interfax-Ukraine.

"The Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are carrying out an inspection. The findings will be reported later. On our part, we stress that according to the law, SBU officers are not authorized to issue official instructions or orders to TSC employees regarding communication with journalists," the press office noted.

On April 6, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, reported on his meeting with the SBU head, Vasyl Maliuk, where the latter "emphasized the inadmissibility of the actions and behavior of individual officers."

"The SBU head made it clear that this situation would not go unnoticed," Yurchyshyn wrote.

The deputy also noted that they "discussed cooperation in the fight against Russian disinformation, assistance to the peoples enslaved by Russia, and interaction with social media companies to enhance our information security."

Background

On April 6, Slidstvo.Info reported that an SBU officer may have instructed the army staffing center to deliver a summons to their journalist. In this way, the special services wanted to punish the man for exposing the SBU head of cyber security Illya Vitiuk for owning elite real estate.

The Media Movement demands a police investigation into the SBU and the TSC officers in view of the incident with the Slidstvo.Info journalist.

On April 6, the UAF Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that he had ordered an official inspection into the Slidstvo.Info report about an attempt to serve an army summons to their journalist following his investigation.

Note that the SBU has not issued a public statement regarding the Slidstvo.Info situation.